"Hmph, at least you know when to give in."
Seeing her husband grimace in pain and finally surrender, Mikoto decided not to push her luck. She stopped pinching the soft flesh at Fugaku's waist and began gently massaging the sore spot instead. As she did, her brows furrowed ever so slightly at the news her husband had just shared.
She mulled it over for a while, mentally filtering through every friend she and her husband had interacted with over the years, trying to recall anyone who might match the conditions to be Naruto's parents…
But that golden hair of his—it was just too distinctive. Mikoto turned it over and over in her mind, and besides the Yamanaka Clan, she simply couldn't think of anyone in their circle who had such a clear genetic trait.
And it was precisely that obvious answer that made Mikoto even more puzzled.
From what she remembered, the only Yamanaka she and her husband were close to was Yamanaka Inoichi, who handled intel operations. And if she wasn't mistaken, Inoichi only had one daughter—Yamanaka Ino. Even if he'd had a son in recent years, the age still wouldn't match up with Naruto.
'A child of old friends? But I'm pretty sure Inoichi only has a daughter… no son, right?'
Unable to make sense of it, Mikoto simply shifted her body slightly, snuggling into a more comfortable position in her husband's arms. She lifted her head and looked into Fugaku's smiling eyes, still doubtful, and voiced her guess.
Hearing his wife's immediate but incorrect assumption, Fugaku knew she'd guessed Naruto's background wrong.
Then again, he couldn't really blame her. Had Naruto not revealed the truth to him directly, he likely would've jumped to the same conclusion—assuming Naruto's family had ties to the Yamanaka Clan.
After all, back when Danzo had made his ruthless move to eliminate potential rivals and seize the Hokage seat, he'd pressured the Third Hokage into announcing that the newborn Naruto had perished alongside Minato and Kushina, killed by the claws of the Nine-Tails. In other words, the general public had long accepted it as fact that the Fourth Hokage's entire family had heroically perished during the Nine-Tails' rampage.
Now, even though he had accidentally let the truth slip, the one who had caught on was his wife. And Mikoto and Kushina had always been close friends, like sisters. She had mourned their supposed deaths just as deeply as anyone. If she knew the truth about Naruto's heritage, Fugaku was sure she would only dote on him more—just like he did.
'Hmm… using Naruto's hair color to trace his lineage… not a bad approach.'
After thinking it through, Fugaku was certain that telling Mikoto about Naruto's origins wouldn't cause any harm. In fact, it would only benefit the boy. Any lingering guilt he felt for revealing Naruto's secret disappeared entirely. Feeling confident, he reached up and gently pinched Mikoto's delicate nose, his eyes crinkling with a playful smile as he said affectionately:
"You're close—but a bit off. Aside from the Yamanaka Clan, there's another old friend of ours with golden hair."
"Hmph… wrong direction? Another old friend with golden hair? Who would that be…?"
Mikoto puffed up her cheeks in mild frustration, annoyed that her husband was teasing her instead of just saying it outright. She pouted and let out a soft humph, then once again began to dig through her memories, trying to follow his hint.
Still couldn't figure it out. 'Dear… are you messing with me? And didn't Naruto say he was an orphan—that his parents died long ago? How could he be the child of our old frie—wait… a pair?'
Just as she was about to voice her confusion aloud, her mind caught on that crucial word. Her voice faltered and died in her throat as though an invisible hand had gripped her by the neck. She froze in Fugaku's arms, stunned, before finally regaining her senses.
Her expression grew stranger and stranger. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at Naruto in the distance—who was grinning with his hands behind his head. She tugged on Fugaku's sleeve, her voice trembling as she murmured:
"N-no way… Is it… is it true? But their… their child should have… didn't they both die when they resealed the Nine-Tails…?"
"Yeah… that 'no way' is exactly what I thought when I found out." Fugaku chuckled, eyes softening. "Those two really didn't make things easy, did they? They actually sealed the Nine-Tails into their newborn son—he had barely come into the world. From the very beginning, they made him bear the burden of being a Jinchūriki."
Seeing Mikoto stammering with the same disbelief he had once felt, Fugaku's smile deepened. He wrapped his arms more securely around her, holding her tight so she wouldn't fall in her emotional daze.
"They probably hoped their son would be treated like a hero by the village… but things didn't go that way. Thanks to certain manipulative cowards, the villagers ended up seeing their son as the reincarnation of the Nine-Tails and despising him."
"So… Naruto… he's really… the son of Kushina and Minato?!"
Naruto's young face slowly overlapped with the memory of the Fourth Hokage and Kushina in Mikoto's mind, guided step by step by her husband's hints. Her hands flew up to cover her mouth so she wouldn't cry out and draw attention.
As Fugaku gently explained the rest, the confusion faded from her face, replaced by tearful joy.
"I… I really thought they… their whole family was already…"
"That's right. Their son is still alive and well in this world—and despite the years of unfair treatment, he hasn't gone astray. He's a good kid. That's why I always asked you to look after him, even though you kept joking he might be my illegitimate child."
Noticing the shift in her expression, Fugaku placed his hand gently on her head before the tears could fall. He pressed her face into his chest, letting her cry quietly as he stroked her hair and continued, half-joking, half-sincere.
"Not realizing it sooner… letting that boy suffer through all that coldness alone… that's our failure."
"No… it's not just us. It's the entire village. We all owe their family far too much…"